On election evening 2020, then-President Donald Trump prematurely declared hours after polls closed: “We now have already received.”
He hadn’t, and we known as it “Pants on Fireplace.” When Trump started talking early on the morning of November 4, at 2:21 a.m. ET, states have been nonetheless following regular procedures for counting ballots. It wasn’t till Saturday, Nov. 7, that The Related Press had sufficient unofficial outcomes out there to name the race for Joe Biden.
Prior to now, when polls closed, politicians and social media influencers unfold falsehoods about voting and the vote counting course of. It’s seemingly that as votes are counted this yr, we are going to see falsehoods just like these in 2020.
Voters in search of credible sources of details about election outcomes can comply with experiences from state election officers throughout the nation, compiled by the Nationwide Affiliation of State Election Administrators. The AP is amongst media retailers that may announce projected winners based mostly on unofficial outcomes, however in lots of states that won’t happen on election evening.
Listed here are some falsehoods that would emerge after the polls shut.
Claims over hundreds of useless voters
It is a zombie declare we see throughout each election cycle: massive numbers of the useless are voting! And they’re all Democrats! Neither of these issues is true.
Whereas the vote depend was going down in November 2020, X posts falsely claimed that over 14,000 useless folks voted in Wayne County, Michigan.
Sometimes, when voters die, it’s uncommon for his or her family members to contact native election places of work to request that their names be faraway from voter rolls. However election places of work routinely obtain dying data from state and federal sources after which take away the names of useless voters from voter rolls. Some nonetheless find yourself within the scrolls.
Often, folks illegally solid mail-in ballots on behalf of deceased family members, as one Republican did in 2020 in Nevada. That voter was charged with felonies.
Claims that poll errors and election web site mishaps quantity to fraud
Though election officers spend years getting ready for presidential elections, errors generally happen.
They don’t seem to be an indication of fraud.
Thus far this yr, we’ve seen a restricted variety of ballots with errors, equivalent to a typo on some ballots in Palm Seaside County, Florida. County officers mentioned 257 international voters opened an e-mail with a poll that mentioned “Tom” Walz as an alternative of Tim Walz, operating mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.
Some election websites have mishaps, equivalent to a water leak at 6 a.m. on Election Day 2020 at Atlanta’s State Farm Enviornment, the place ballot employees have been counting absentee ballots. Enviornment workers repaired the leak in about two hours and no ballots or machines have been broken. State and county election officers debunked the declare that election officers used the occasion to bypass processes and take away ballots saved in “suitcases” that have been “all for Biden.”
Claims of hundreds of pretend votes in Pennsylvania
Officers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, mentioned in an preliminary assertion on Oct. 25 that they have been investigating 2,500 “ballots,” however a county spokesperson later mentioned that phrase was a mistake and that the investigation was centered on requests for voter registration.
Days later, Trump falsely mentioned at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania: “We caught them with 2,600 votes. …And each vote was written by the identical individual.” He made related feedback about X about “faux votes and types” in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Legal professional Common Michelle Henry, a Democrat, mentioned in an Oct. 31 assertion, “The investigations concern voter registration types, not ballots,” and have been underway in 4 counties.
Officers don’t embrace folks on voter lists if their registration is suspicious, that means there have been hundreds of false votes.
Claims about machines altering votes
As Republican Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams wrote on Nov. 2 in X: “A mild reminder that vote flipping is fiction.” It linked to a 2008 video of Homer Simpson making an attempt to vote for Barack Obama however repeatedly voting for former Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Election officers confronted with experiences of “flipped” or “switched” votes have mentioned that’s generally person error, and when voters deliver the problem to their consideration, officers be sure that voters can solid ballots with the specified choices.
That is what occurred in Tarrant County, Texas, when one individual amongst greater than 100,000 voters reported that their vote for Trump modified to Harris when the poll was printed. Native election officers mentioned voting machines weren’t altering candidates and prompt the voter made a mistake in deciding on most popular candidates. That poll was destroyed and the voter was allowed to vote once more.
An Instagram submit from October mentioned voting machines in Shelby County, Tennessee, have been switching votes from Harris to Trump. Election officers mentioned there have been no malfunctions within the voting machines. Voters had inadvertently touched the improper space of the poll when utilizing touch-screen voting machines.
There isn’t a rampant voting by non-citizens
Trump and his supporters have falsely claimed that Democrats are behind a plan to lure noncitizens to the USA to vote in federal elections. That is not occurring.
Federal legislation prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
Noncitizens generally seem on voter lists, usually accidentally whereas acquiring their driver’s licenses. Nevertheless, noncitizen voting in federal elections is uncommon. The most important case with convictions we discovered was in 2020 in North Carolina, when federal prosecutors charged 19 folks with voter fraud after casting their ballots, primarily within the 2016 election. For context, greater than 4.5 Hundreds of thousands of individuals in North Carolina voted within the 2016 presidential election.
Claims that election officers tear up or throw away ballots
In case you are a ballot employee committing voter fraud, you in all probability would not movie your self opening envelopes of mail-in ballots, shouting out the votes on these ballots, cursing at a candidate, and tearing up ballots marked for that candidate.
However that is what a ridiculous viral video seems to point out, main X customers to assert that pro-Trump mail-in ballots are being destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Federal officers mentioned Russian actors fabricated and amplified the video.
Claims in 2020 about a lot of ballots discovered within the trash have been both made up or referred to voided ballots that have been legally destroyed.
Claims election officers sneak in ‘vote dumps’ late at evening
It’s common for a candidate to take the lead in early outcomes however not be the winner as extra votes are counted. For instance, in Pennsylvania, if it takes longer to depend votes in left-leaning Philadelphia than in a extra right-wing a part of the state, it is potential that Trump could lead on the state early within the night however see the margins shift extra. late.
Trump tweeted the declare on November 4, 2020: “Final evening I used to be main, usually solidly, in lots of key states, virtually all run and managed by Democrats. Then, one after the other, they started to magically disappear because the shock votes have been counted.”
In some states, Trump initially led, solely to see Biden lastly take the lead. However in different states, Biden led and Trump once more took the lead.
There may be nothing nefarious about native election officers updating outcomes hours and days after polls shut. In impact, it implies that they’re counting all reliable votes. State legal guidelines dictate the method, together with when officers can start opening mail-in ballots. Which means it takes time to complete the depend. Some states, like Pennsylvania, don’t enable election employees to start processing mail-in ballots till Election Day, whereas different states enable it to start weeks earlier than.
Claims that huge voter fraud in 2020 affected the end result of the election
After polls closed in 2020, a cascade of pictures and images on social media claimed to point out ballot employees and others committing voter fraud. However the posts largely confirmed election officers doing their jobs.
Our nation’s electoral system makes such a heist unlikely and impossibly elaborate.
“We should always name this what it’s: Trump laying the groundwork to have the ability to solid doubt on the 2024 outcomes if he does not win,” Joanna Lydgate, government director of the United Middle for American Democracy, a gaggle, advised PolitiFact in early October. non-partisan group.
To construct a adequate margin within the Electoral School, dangerous actors must collaborate throughout the battleground states in a coordinated however secret method, with a whole lot of individuals risking severe crimes for a similar aim.
Attaining this may require hundreds of unlawful votes. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Basis reveals about 1,300 voter fraud convictions over a long time. Billions of votes have been solid throughout that interval.
Early victory claims
Talking on the White Home hours after polls closed in 2020, Trump mentioned: “We would like all voting to cease. We do not need them to search out ballots at 4 within the morning and add them to the record, okay? It is a very unhappy second. …And we are going to win this.”
There isn’t a state or federal legislation that states that vote counting should cease just a few hours after the polls shut. Election officers would have violated legal guidelines if they’d merely stopped counting reliable votes.
State legal guidelines set the certification deadline in November or December, so official outcomes will not be identified till weeks after Election Day. Nevertheless, the media is more likely to challenge a winner a lot sooner.
